Terminal units are known, particularly for applications in the field of telematic games, provided with a scanning device, also called simply scanner, and a display screen, respectively for acquiring and displaying data.
One of these terminal units is for instance known from the international patent application published under number WO2004/081704 A2, by the same Applicant.
The scanner is preferably arranged on a front side of the terminal unit for receiving a document to be read, such as for instance a gaming coupon, whereas the display screen is in turn mounted on an upper portion of the terminal unit for displaying information concerning the transaction carried out, in particular the gaming data that have been read from the coupon by way of the scanner.
Still in the field of telematic games, the terminal unit may integrate in its structure a printer, for instance for printing the gaming data on a receipt, showing the wager made, which is issued to the player.
Where the terminal unit does not include a printer in its structure, it can be associated with a separate, single printer, in order to form with the latter a group capable of providing substantially the same functions as a terminal unit integrating a printer inside.
The known solutions at the moment do not appear capable of solving the problem of producing, at low cost, a terminal unit, associated with or provided with a printer, which is not just easy to maintain, but which also has an all-out clearance in the transverse direction, printer included, that is sufficiently low and coming within preestablished limits.
In particular, where the printer is integrated in the terminal unit, the latter's overall structure assumes greater complexity, precisely on account of accommodating and appropriately supporting the printer, with respect to the case in which the printer is absent and is not integrated, with a resulting rise in the costs of manufacturing the terminal unit.
On the other hand, where the printer is separate from the terminal unit and accordingly printer and terminal unit constitute two distinct units, all-out clearance transversally of the group comprised by these two side by side units tends to assume a rather high value and often no longer compatible with certain applications in which such a group comprising the terminal unit and the printer is to be used.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,697 proposes a main computer provided on the outside with a seat, of elongated shape, extending in the longitudinal direction between a respective first side, open to the outside, and a respective second side, facing the first, closed and delimited by a wall.
The seat is also delimited by another two sides, oriented longitudinally and also facing one another, which are associated with two respective parallel guides, each configured as a rail, in turn suitable for slidingly accommodating, through the first open side of the seat, two corresponding grooves made in the outer casing of a printer intended to be mounted removably in this seat.
This solution has the drawback of considerably complicating, due to the presence and somewhat complex shape of this seat and of the corresponding two guide rails for removably accommodating the printer, the structure of the base unit consisting of the main computer, with a resultant increase in the relative manufacturing costs, as well as implying quite a laborious assembly of the printer in the seat formed in the main computer.